On Yom HaShoah, a student can still hear a Holocaust survivor, hear the words Auschwitz, 6 million and still not understand what was lost or why it matters. This is a failure of education. As there are only a limited number of Holocaust survivors still alive, we will gather, light candles and speak about remembrance. But we should also ask a harder question: what, exactly, are we teaching, and who is deciding how it is taught?  But the harder truth is this if so many people misunderstand the Holocaust, the failure is not only theirs, it is ours.

Despite decades of investment, conferences and institutional visibility, Holocaust education and Jewish responses to antisemitism reveal a systemic failure, both educationally and morally. Across organizations in North America, too many of those responsible for shaping Holocaust education are not equipped to teach it. They lack the content knowledge and the pedagogical foundation required to present it to students in a meaningful way. Yet they are often the ones making the decisions.

Holocaust education is too frequently shaped not by trained educators or scholars, but by donors, institutional leaders and networks of influence.........

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